this morning on "early today" -- a gathering storm. tropical storm debby with treacherous wind and waves along florida's gulf coast. historic results. cheers erupt in tahrir square after the results are announced in egypt's first democratic election. friend or foe. a pair go paw to paw on a front lawn. >> announcer: this is "early today" for monday, june 25, 2012. hello and very good morning to you. i'm veronica de la cruz. today we begin with a storm warning. heavy rain and winds are lashing forward as west coast as tropical storm debby churns in the gulf of mexico.

the slow moving storm has already been blamed for at least one death. nbc's jay gray joins us from pensacola, florida. good morning to you. >> reporter: good morning from the gulf. tropical storm debby is stationary, churning in the waters but the surf and the wind here are going like the concern along the coast. tropical storm debby continues to gather strength in the warm water of the gulf, the fourth named storm of this young season well offshore but already delivering a stern warning of what's to come. waves, strong winds and driving rain, the surf already pouring over roads and under beach houses in dolphin island, alabama. forecast models aren't clear when or where debby could make landfall but it has the potential for hurricane category 1 when it does strike. and fema is urging those on the gulf coast to be prepared. >> water and battery and flashlights. that's about it. just canned food maybe.

>> reporter: the system has spawned several tornadoes and is being blamed for at least one death in southeast florida where tornadoes have already split trees and damaged homes. damage of what could be an early preview of what debby has in store for the gulf coast. many worry it's also a sign this is going to be a rough hurricane season. debby is the fourth named storm already this year. the first time ever that's happened, four named stormed before the 1st of july. jay gray. nbc meteorologist bill karins has been tracking debby for us. >> a afascinating weekend. good morning. at one point at the beginning of the weekend it looked like this storm could linger near louisiana, texas, that's been thrown out completely and now looks like debby will do a slow drift over the next five days. a bunch of dry air got sucked into the middle of the storm.

all thunderstorms have been displaced well to the east of the center. it doesn't look like it will ever become a hurricane. that's one piece of good news. yesterday all of the bad weather was over florida. that's where we had tornadoes, all the heavy rainfall. a new line of storms has fired up over the top of tam. and sarasota. tampa has received an amazing amount of rainfall. we're now up over 9 1/2 inches of rain and most of that was yesterday. now with this line that went through over the last two hours and picked up another 2 inches of rain, we have a new tornado warning to the north of tampa, outside of newport. that's the big concern today. downpours with flash flooding. when we could possibly deal with tornadoes. as far as the forecast track there, i mentioned it's a slow drift. we don't think it's going to intensify. wind will never be an issue with this storm. the biggest threat, a lot of heavy rain, maybe historic rainfall amounts in southern georgia and the panhandle of florida but as far as florida itself is considered the lower

part, tornadoes will be the biggest risk. this isn't a big hurricane, a katrina type storm but even these tropical storm with flooding can be bigging big problems. >> thanks for watching that. elsewhere, a fast growing wildfire near colorado springs, colorado, forced evacuation of more than 11,000 residents and tourists on sunday. in northern colorado authorities say the total number of homes destroyed by fire has risen to nearly 250. that blaze is so far scorched more than 130 square miles. right now there are a total of eight wildfires currently burning in colorado. overseas egypt's first freely elected president is expected to meet with the ruling council which last week took away most of the powers of the president's office. mohammed morsi won with more than 51% of the vote. he said he carried a message of unity and pledged to preserve egypt's international accord, including those with neighboring israel.

his supporters are vowing to stay in tahrir square until presidential powers are reenstated. now here's a look at some other stories making news "early today" in america. in florida people were doing a double take after seeing a pair of bears fighting. they got into a wrestling match in the middle of a residential neighborhood. even wildlife officials who watched the video say they have rarely seen anything like this. after their brawl, the bears eventually just wandered off. in south dakota, storm chasers captured an unusual tornado on video. it rained hail as it made its way outside a community in ardmore. fortunately, only a few outbuildings were destroyed. no one was hurt. in indianapolis, you could say they like the sun so much that they put a ring on it. actually, the ring was a halo effect createded when sun passes

through sirius clouse creating ice crystals. in nevada, dogs were just trying to stay cool, they were trying to make a big splash. they competed to see how far they could make it from jumping from a dock into a 40-foot pool. one of the dogs clear 20 feet before getting soaked. now for a look at your national and regional weather, here's bill karins. you could say the dog days of summer are here. >> yeah, if that pool was in kansas it would have been at a slow boil. the fire weather and incredible heat, yesterday, that's not a misprint, 114 degrees in hill city, kansas, all-time record june temperature for that region. denver was 102. this heat in the middle of the country is not going anywhere soon. denver the next three days. 100 monday, tuesday, wednesday. you cool off slightly by

thursday and friday. but this is going to go down as one of the hottest junes ever in denver. your forecast for today. 100 degrees plus in almost all areas of texas up through denver. look at the rockies. as you go into billings, montana, we're at 99 degrees today. dealing with rain and thunderstorms in the northeast but the rest of the country, it's not that bad. now here's a look at the weather outside your window. a bunch of extremes around the country today. we'll watch some heat breaking in st. louis thankfully. still very hot, though. austin, texas, 103. the drought's getting worse and worse in the heartland. we'll have an update on debby coming up at the end of the show. >> thanks, bill. health care hangs in the balance. belgian goes south of the border. which summer dip is your best barbecue deal? plus, one new release hits box office bull's-eye while

another gets staked. red sox trade kevin youkilis and you're going to the olympics. this is "early today."

very good morning to you. welcome back to "early today." i'm veronica de la cruz. here are some of your top headlines this morning. turkey is still searching for the pilot of a plane shot down by syria in the mediterranean friday and called for an emergency nato meeting over the incident. tensions are high as syria's military yesterday continued to attack areas held by opposition forces. in oklahoma, three railroad workers are still missing after a collision between two freight trains. two engineers and a conductor are unaccounted for. in canada, search teams hope to resume looking for people trapped in the rubble after a roof collapsed at a mall on saturday. one is feared dead and the other

trapped inside but the structure is too unstable for rescuers to go in. alex trebek is expected to fully recover from a mild heart attack saturday in los angeles. the 71-year-old is expected to return for another "jeopardy!" season starting in july. and the iconic giant tortoise known as lonesome george died sunday after the coast of ecuador. he was the last of his subspecies of tortoise and was believed to be about 100 years old. now here's an early look at how wall street will kick off the day. the dow opens at 12640 after adding 67 points friday. the s&p gained 9. the nasdaq gained 3. taking a look at overseas treeding, tokyo's nikkei dipped 63 and in hong kong the hang seng fell 97. nation's highest court wraps up its current term this week. a landmark ruling on health care

could be a big market mover. wall street is waiting on the court's decision whether president obama's health care bill is constitutional. overseas this morning, asian markets drifted lower as doubts grow about a major breakthrough at euro summit. they convened trying to find common ground over the region's ongoing debt crisis. earnings front, results on deck from nike, general mills and research in motion, which according to "the london times" is considering splitting in two. we also get new home sales data and prices. the average price of a gallon of gas has dropped 15 cents over the past two weeks. it's now down to $3.48 a gallon. and anheuser-busch could be expanding its brewer. they're reported in talks to

take over corona for $12 billion. your summer cook outcould cost you a little more. hot dog prices are up only a penny but the leanest ground beef will run you about 5% more than last year, while wholesale chicken is up about 10%. but feel free to pile on the gauc because avocado prices are down this year. one oakland a's rookie hits his first big league homer and makes it count. plus, the white sox rob a home run and all-star infielder. your early morning sports headlines are straight ahead. tropical storm debby will continue to drench the southeast and the heat in the middle of the country is ridiculous. your forecast coming up.

very good morning to you. if you're just waking up, this is "early today." in sports last night major league baseball's only knuckleball was no match for the yankees who held on to beat the mets in the subway series' rubber game. here's nbc's mario solis with a look at all your sports headlines. >> hi, good morning. yankees and mets slugged it out last night. in the end, the reining home run

derby champ. robinson cano steps in and out, solo shot to straightaway center. that's the difference. yanks win 6-5. boston, cody ross was a one-man wrecking crew, hit a home run in the fourth and another in the fifth. hammering this one over the green monster. ross had five rbi. kevin youkilis had been a subject of trade rumors. rips an rbi triple into the gap. would that be his last member as a member of the red sox? yes, he was traded to the white sox after the game. boston beat atlanta 9-4. call it coincidence, fate, but red sox wore striped jerseys and corey hart is robbed of a home run. scoreless until the tenth. two or for escobar and he we understand it with a walkoff single. white sox win 1-0 in ten. battle of the bay. giant and a's. derek norris picked a perfect time to hit his first major

league home run. end with a three-run bomb in the ninth. a's walk off with a 4-2 win. nascar, clint bowyer held off tony stewart to take the checkered flag. women's 100 meter final, keep an eye at the top of your screen. felix and tarmo finished in a dead heat for third place. only the top three get a trip to london. yesterday race officials decided the final spot will be determined by either a runoff or a simple coin toss. i don't know about you, but i would prefer rock, paper, scissors. that's a look at sports on "early today." family films continue their box office domination this weekend. your early morning entertainment headlines are straight ahead. plus, mirror, mirror on the wall, who is the ugliest of them all? you're watching "early today."

welcome back to "early today." tropical storm debby has weakened considerably in the last 24 hours but it's still capable of producing bands of thunderstorms and tornadoes today over areas of florida. a band of very heavy rain over sarasota, florida, and now moving to the east out of tampa. tampa picked up 2 inches of rain from that band alone. you notice the center of the storm not very impressive right now. a lot of dry air got into it. that's actually good that it's weakened. as far as the other big story, the fires and the heat cover

from the northern rockies through colorado, all the way down through texas today where a little cooler kansas city to st. louis. you had a hot weekend yourselves. as we head towards tomorrow, we're looking at very hot conditions out there. have you to feel for these firefighters on the front lines. if you're watching us on weyi in saginaw, michigan, head to the children's museum where they can learn from food comes from and experience the life of a farm at aunt sugar's farm. >> it looks like a lot of fun as well. >> educational. >> absolutely. now here's an early look at this morning's headlines in entertainment news. you could say things got highly animated at the box office over the weekend. pixar's "brave" pulled in a whopping $68.7 million this weekend. the fairytale film about a scottish princess skewed female but did well with the men/boys. the two-week champ

"madagascar 3" took in $20 million in the third weekend to land in second place and "abraham lincoln" came in third. considering the $68 million price tag, fox executives hope this movie will have legs in the coming weeks. finally, the number ten spot "seeking a friend for the end of the world" with steve carell and keira knightley, that crashed and burned with $3. million. which is unfortunate because i love steve carell. >> maybe we should start our own return to "the office" petition. >> something like that. >> i miss him from that show a lot. >> i do, too. >> we need a lot more bombs. now from kntv bay area news where in petaluma, california, the theory all dogs are cute is

challenged. a chinese crested named mugly from england showed off his less than perfect looks after winning a similar contest back home year ago. they took home 1,000 bucks and year's supply of dog cookies. haven't we seen him before? >> hands down he's ugly. >> no, he's not. >> he's scared, too, so it adds to it. he has the shakes. >> i just think all dogs are cute. probably because i'm a dog owner. >> you haven't seen that one. i'm veronica de la cruz. this is "early today." just your first stop of the day today on your nbc station.

>> live, local, late-breaking, this is wbal-tv 11 news today. >> good morning. we're starting out with some quiet weather. temperatures in the 70's. some rain dropping out of pennsylvania. the showers are north of york are drifting down to the south and east. take an umbrella with you. i think we'll see some passing showers today. made a deposit. we'll check the forecast in just a few minutes. >> 4:57. 73 degrees on tv hill. >> fire crews worked to put out

a brush fire in queen anne's county. >> white patients and politicians are keeping a close eye on a supreme court decision. >> how do marylanders feel about legalized gambling in the state? >> sarah caldwell checking on your morning commute. will update you on the major will update you on the major our cloud is made of bedrock.

concrete. and steel. our cloud is the smartest brains combating the latest security threats. it spans oceans, stretches continents. and is scalable as far as the mind can see. our cloud is the cloud other clouds look up to. welcome to the uppernet.

[captioning made possible by constellation energy group] captioned by the national captioning institute --www.ncicap.org-- >> live, local, late-breaking, this is wbal-tv 11 news today. >> good morning. happy monday. i'm mindy basara. ." stovall.tan jothanks for joining us for 11 newsay